Bible Commentaries
Genesis 48

Verses 1-22

The use of the two names is observed once more. Jacob was sick, but, hearing that Joseph was coming to see him, it was Israel that strengthened himself. Once again Jacob was the speaker and in what he said the planning of the schemer was still evident.

Yet how wonderfully the divine overruling is seen, for in Jacob's adoption of Ephraim and Manasseh the redemption of Joseph from Egypt was brought about. Joseph had married an Egyptian woman and occupied a place of peculiar power in Egypt. What more likely than that his sons should be brought up as Egyptians? The action of Jacob in claiming these boys as his retained the succession of Joseph within the border of the people of God.

In the latter part of the story the name is Israel and the whole life of the man was one of faith. Evidently he acted entirely under divine impulse in crossing his hands so that the right lay on Ephraim's head and the left on Manasseh. Thus it is seen that notwithstanding all his faults and failures, this son of Isaac and Abraham was indeed a man of faith and an instrument through whom it was possible for God to carry out His purposes.